


Trapped

by warriorprincessclarke



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 03:33:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6178672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warriorprincessclarke/pseuds/warriorprincessclarke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A rewrite of how Clarke and Murphy are reunited in Polis. Titus brings a beaten and bloody Murphy into a coalition meeting as a prisoner and Clarke steps up to help him. They bond but when they try to leave, something stops them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trapped

Clarke stood beside Lexa at another meeting of the thirteen clans. They were to discuss what to do about the impending Skaikru attacks. Titus and most of the other clans were all for banishing Skaikru while Clarke had convinced Lexa to give them more time to realize that their actions were getting them nowhere.

“Before we discuss the fate of Skaikru, Titus has something he wishes to discuss.” Lexa announced to the group.

“Yes. Rather it is more something to show than to speak of.” Titus momentarily exited the room. The leaders of the thirteen clans murmured to one another, wondering what Titus would bring back. He returned pushing a struggling man with his hands bound behind him through the crowd. Titus kicked the man’s back so he fell to his knees in front of the commander. “He was caught stealing and he was in possession of an item with the sacred symbol of the commander.”

Clarke stepped closer to Lexa to get a better look at the beat up, bloody man. There was a feeling in the pit of her stomach that the man was not found looking like this, that Titus gave him these wounds. The man slowly started to raise his head, as if it caused him agony to move. His eyes made it to hers and Clarke could not believe her eyes. It was John Murphy. The boy she had thought to be long dead on his way to the promised land with Jaha. 

“Murphy?” Clarke said before she could stop herself.

“Clarke?” Murphy seemed almost more confused that Clarke was. Clarke immediately rushed to his side. She took his face in her palms and looked over his facial wounds. 

“What did they do to you?” Clarke whispered to Murphy, though her intonation sounded like a rhetorical thought escaping her mind.

“Clarke do you know this boy?” Lexa asked in her commander voice. There was no way that Lexa would feel anything but hostile towards someone who was caught stealing, and Clarke had no idea what the symbol had to do with anything but it did not sound good.

Clarke snapped her head around her shoulder towards Lexa and said, “He’s my friend.”

“You are friends with a thief?” Lexa asked judgmentally.

Clarke swallowed hard and replied, “Yes.” She maintained eye contact and stood by her answer. “He is my friend and he needs medical attention that I can provide.”

Lexa weighed her options silently. “Fine. Titus, escort the two of them to Clarke’s quarters.”

* * *

 

“Titus can you leave us alone for a minute?” Clarke asked. If her intuition was right, then Titus was the one who inflicted the wounds on Murphy and he would just continue to be hostile.

“Are you sure, Wanheda? He could be dangerous.” Titus sounded cautious.

“Trust me Titus, I know full well what he is capable of and I can handle it.” Clarke saw Murphy’s bloody lips crack a smile as she referenced all they had gone through together. They were both acutely aware of the violence and conflict of their past but right now, Murphy was the only thing she had to  remind herself of Skaikru.

“As you wish, Wanheda.” Titus said tentatively as he backed out of the towering double doors. As soon as he was gone, Clarke let out a sigh of relief.

“Okay Murphy, what the hell are you doing here?” Clarke sounded mentally exhausted because seeing Murphy in the grounder capitol months after she thought he surely died was too much for her.

“I could ask you the same thing. Why aren’t you with the rest of the Ark? Wait, are they all dead?” Murphy looked genuinely concerned.

“Not all of them. We actually gained some more, but then most of them died.”

“Wow I’m not even going to ask.” Murphy said.

“You never answered my question, why are you here?” Clarke asked.

“Well that, dear Clarke, is quite a long story.”

“Can you give me a short version while I clean you off?” She asked as she began untying his constraints.

“I can try,” Murphy sounded overwhelmed by his own memories. “You know that me and Jaha left to go find the City of Light, crazy idea right? So we walked and walked and walked through a desert, met a girl, she tried to kill me. We found a literal mine field, almost got blown up a few times,  _ got  _ blown up once. Then we found a drone that we followed over an ocean. At this point the group was down to 4 of us. Maybe it was 3? All I know is that a lot of people died. Then everyone but me and Jaha died on the boat because of some monster thing in the ocean. That was Jaha’s fault he pushed them in. I was an injured mess when we made it to shore, but hey what’s new? So Jaha left me for dead on the beach- Ow!” Clarke had pushed a little too hard on one of his wounds.

“Oh god I’m sorry, please continue.”

“It’s fine don’t worry about it. As I was saying, I was there all night but in the morning I found a lighthouse, and that was pretty sweet until Jaha and the bitch in the red dress locked me inside for three months. Then they let me out and they tried to get me to believe that taking a pill and going to the City of Light was going to solve all of the problems in my life. Then the girl from the desert came back and we hightailed it on out of there because who knows what Jaha was up to. Then we tried to steal and got caught and now the grounders think that the City of Light pill is a sacred grounder symbol.”

Clarke was speechless. She didn’t even know where to begin. “I’m sorry?” The two of them stared at each other for a moment until they both laughed half heartedly. Sorry couldn’t even cover a fraction of what either of them had been through.

“Yeah I’ve been through a lot.” Murphy looked around the spacious room, “But now I am a prisoner of the queen of the grounders so I can’t exactly dwell on the past.”

“Don’t worry about that, I can probably convince Lexa to allow you to return to Arkadia.” Clarke gently rubbed his shoulder, attempting to comfort him.

“What the hell is Arkadia?” Murphy asked. His voice was deadpan, he knew that there was so much that he wasn’t aware of.

“New name for Camp Jaha.”

“I guess I’ve missed a lot that happened in Sky People land. For starters, what is up with Wanheda?”

Clarke directed her full attention to the wound on Murphy’s chest that she was cleaning.

“Hey sorry, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Murphy back tracked. 

“No it’s fine, someone will fill you in eventually. It may as well be me.” Clarke then proceeded to recount the story of Mount Weather, in full bloody detail, to Murphy. 

“Wow. I never thought I would meet someone with war stories to rival mine.” Murphy sounded vaguely shaken up.

“Murphy your stories aren’t even from an actual war, mine are.” Clarke pointed out.

“You know what I mean.” Murphy smiled softly and focused on his lap.

“Yeah.” Clarke turned her full attention back to her job. They did not talk until Murphy was completely free of blood.

“Well there you go. Clean as I can manage without completely submerging you in water.” Clarke stood up to dispose of the bloody rag and Murphy slowly put his shirt on.

“Thank you Clarke. I know we have had some, differences,” he put it lightly, “in the past but I really appreciate you helping me. Who knows what raccoon eyes or baldy would have done to me.”

Clarke laughed at that comment. “You’re welcome Murphy. Even  _ you  _ don’t deserve to be a grounder prisoner.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should,” this time her laugh sounded pained. Suddenly, out of the blue, Clarke wrapped her arms around his torso. Murphy was surprised and did not know how to react at first. When Clarke did not immediately pull away, Murphy let his guard down and wrapped his own arms around her shoulders. Clarke eventually ended the hug and said, “I’m sorry. I just- I don’t know you remind me of life before all of this happened. I needed to hold onto the comfort of life before Mount Weather.”

“It’s okay Clarke. I needed it too.” Murphy smiled fondly at Clarke.

Clarke took a deep breath and composed herself. “Let’s go get you back to Arkadia.”

The pair started towards the door but before they could reach it, it started to open. Titus stood in the entryway.

“Where are you two going?”

“To talk to Lexa. He needs to get back to Skaikru.” Clarke said authoritatively.

“You can’t. Heda is gone. She has joined the patrols to watch over Skaikru.”

“Well I can escort Murphy back to Skaikru myself. Just let us take some horses and-” Titus cut Clarke off.

“You cannot leave Polis.”

“Why not?” Murphy chimed in.

“Because, boy, there is a kill order on all Sky People. Anyone caught outside of Polis or Arkadia will be killed on the spot.” He shifted his stone cold gaze to Clarke, “even the great Wanheda.”


End file.
